Did Warden really need to be gutted?

[Striker.9413]

I'll admit, Warden was very effective, but did it really need a functional change? Before I rant, I'll admit I haven't tried to use it long but here are my issues with the change.

 

First is positioning. The previous version was reliable, spawned next to your target, and if it didn't, it would move into melee range. It did not matter how far you were from the target. The new one sometimes moves into melee, other times sits at 600 range, or sometimes in between. This makes the projectile blocking utility much more difficult to use in general. It's near impossible to use on a ranged target while in melee with something else, unlike the previous Warden which spawns at the enemy's feet and block all projectiles it fires for a short time.

 

Second is damage. Warden does slightly more damage, and at range, to a single target. But much less overall damage in situations with 2 or 3 targets. The AoE damage was good to have and something sorely lacking on mesmers. We already had 2 single target power based damage phantasms for offhands (sword and pistol), and now we lost our AoE.

 

Third, very minor but I liked the immobilize for open world PvE. Helped bring down breakbars when soloing champs.

 

What does everyone else think?

[Curunen.8729]

Thematically I love it - it makes sense to spawn on you and "protect" you from projectiles while throwing out its own projectiles.

 

It could do with some improvement to the damage application method though - maybe cleave everything in melee as before (if someone decides to go at you while you're "protected" by the warden then at least they'll get hurt) as well as throwing out projectiles? Needs to be fairly powerful for a defensive skill on an offhand that doesn't offer much in the current state of the game.

[Magolith.9412]

I agree wholeheartedly. It feels very lackluster to me (at least, from a WVW roaming standpoint).

[Curunen.8729]

It would be cool if it was like a phantasm version of shield 4 - but instead of the player casting the skill the phantasm does it.

 

Maybe it should offer 2s block or something on initial cast?